It's all about follow through. My daughter will be 3 in april and we started doing time outs with her when she started her acting out and pushing buttons phase, which was right around the two year mark. I'm firm but not over bearing. Pick a spot in the house, be it a corner or certain chair (not the couch or something she sits on all the time) and a place that is away from other distractions, like she can't see the tv or grab anything to play with. And a place where you can see her. We do one minute for every year she is old. If she gets up we start the time out over again. And if she is having a huge tantrum she stays in timeout until she calms down. After her timeout I either put her on my lap or sit on the floor with her and tell her what she did was not acceptable and that she can't behave like that. If it was something like hitting, i tell her it hurts when she hits, if it was for throwing something in the house that particular item is taken away until she can play with it like she's supposed to. Don't get frustrated when the first few times you do a timeout and you think it's not working. It takes time for them to understand just what a time out is. As far as getting dressed, i don't do timeouts with that, i just sit there until she puts her clothes on even if it takes 10 minutes because it's something she needs to do herself. Best of luck. |